Thirty-five-years ago, when I first started working in advertising, a talented sales trainer named Lee Neary taught me an invaluable lesson:

“You have to stay ‘top of mind’ with your customers
and consistently do helpful things that are
related to the customer’s business.”

He taught me to mail my prospects and customers interesting industry-related articles on a regular basis. Then to go a step further by using a yellow highlighter to point out the salient info on the piece for the customer. I’d go to the library and skim trade magazines related to my customers’ industries, searching for articles to copy, mail, and highlight that might help them or give them a leg up on their competition.

Later in my career, I taught my own sales teams to flag “share dates” in their monthly planners. These were reminders for them to send something to Customers X, Y, and Z each month.

Today’s successful businesses are doing the very same thing with their customers — they just brought the communication venue online. Companies share and forward valuable tips and tricks via social networks and email instead of snail mail. It’s the same thoughtful idea, just using a newer, quicker medium.

Insider Tip: Be sure what you send is relevant; avoid Digital Pollution. And really smart businesses are also periodically sending postal letters, cards, and even packages once in a while — to keep things truly personalized and interesting!

Not only are businesses sharing articles of interest with their customers, savvy companies are harnessing the power of content marketing by creating their OWN original content.

The smart money has always been — and will continue to be — on CONTENT STRATEGY. It’s one big “Help Festival” on the internet, with people putting all sorts of relevant and valuable information just a click or a tap away. Why not show the world your industry expertise by developing meaningful, helpful content yourself!

Your customers judge you and your business on how helpful you are in meeting their needs and solving their problems. So ask yourself:

“How are you being helpful to your customers so they
think of you the next time they need your products or services?

Keeping yourself “top of mind” with your customers is just one more reason to make content development part of your strategic marketing plan. Is your business positioning itself to be remembered?See all articles by Johnathan Crawford →
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